Guilford Rail System changed its name to Pan Am Railways in 2006. Discussion relating to the current operations of the Boston & Maine, the Maine Central, and the Springfield Terminal railroads (as well as the Delaware & Hudson while it was under Guilford control until 1988). Official site can be found here: PANAMRAILWAYS.COM.

For the others, I don't even see train tracks intersecting with Park Avenue in Arlington Heights (Nor an abandoned row), I only see a concrete bridge in Swampscott that's either old or is styled to look that way, a modern looking steel truss bridge in West Boylston is the only thing I see on Hartwell Street, no sign of any such bridge in Rollinsford, a modern bridge at one end of Old Rt. 4 in Berwick with no evidence of a bridge at the other end where it presumably crossed back over to join the present highway, and just a modern bridge and a grade crossing in Arundel.

Last edited by Leo_Ames on Fri Oct 21, 2016 7:50 am, edited 1 time in total.

Looks like the one you linked to in Randolph has been replaced with a modern steel one. There was one over Snyder brook, between Randolph and Gorham that was removed for repair a few years ago, and I can not tell by the areial shot if it is still there, or now a new one.

Like I said, that's clearly not a boxed pony. It's a modern pedestrian bridge that looks to easily be less than half the width of the wooden bridge that preceded it. It's much too narrow to have accommodated wagons and the automobiles and trucks that came later.

Here's a picture of the style of bridge that we're talking about. It's essentially a covered bridge, but without the roof to protect the decking. Only the Howe truss on the sides are protected from the weather, hence the nickname (Boxed refers to the enclosure around the structural members, pony refers to the low height of the sides).

They were a New England fixture for generations and represent the last large scale use of wood as a structural member in rail related bridges outside of trestles. The Boston & Maine Railroad was building them through the 1940's both for rail use and to carry traffic above their lines, fifty years after most railroads thought that wooden bridges were outdated.

Wood was probably cheaper than steel into the 1940s or so, and especially during WWII or Korean War there would have been shortages. Other railroads probably worried about total cost of ownership over the life of the bridge. Was B&M's thinking more short term?

i can imagine an Irving owned railroad building a wooden bridge, lol, since they own the raw material!

Leo_Ames wrote:Like I said, that's clearly not a boxed pony. It's a modern pedestrian bridge that looks to easily be less than half the width of the wooden bridge that preceded it. It's much too narrow to have accommodated wagons and the automobiles and trucks that came later.

That's correct. The ancestral B&M pony bridge at that location was replaced by the current pedestrian bridge maybe ten years ago. At that time the motor vehicle passage across the tracks was closed, the street on the other side dead-ended, and it became a foot crossing only.

The Moose Brook boxed pony wooden bridge in Gorham is going to a new home:

The Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington (WW&F) Railway Museum "Narrow Bridge Ahead!" Campaign is asking for $50,000 in donations for site preparation and erection of "Moose Brook" bridge to carry the Museum's reconstruction of the two foot, narrow gauge WW&F Railway across Trout Brook in Alna, Maine. The bridge, originally constructed near Gorham in 1918 on the Berlin (NH) Branch of the Boston & Maine Railroad, is a historically-significant example of a Howe Boxed Pony Truss bridge, one of only eight surviving examples of such a design. This effort is being performed in conjunction with the National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges and the National Park Service.